A difficult year for the prisoners

In Qaanaaq and they surrounding settlements Siorapaluk, Savissivik and Qeqertaq, have the business situation this year has been difficult and has affected prisoners and fishing families hard at the turn of the year.

According to Avannaata Kommunias business department in Qaanaaq, around 50 applications have been submitted for temporary help to the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries.

In Qaanaaq and they surrounding settlements Siorapaluk, Savissivik and Qeqertaq, have the business situation this year has been difficult and has affected prisoners and fishing families hard at the turn of the year.

According to Avannaata Kommunias business department in Qaanaaq, around 50 applications have been submitted for temporary help to the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries.

Business life in difficulties

According to David Qujaukitsoq, director of the business department of Qaanaaq in Avannaata Kommunia, the business community in Qaanaaq and the surrounding settlements has had a difficult year, which has particularly affected families who live exclusively from fishing and catching.

- This year fewer cruise ships arrived than last year, resulting in lower income from tourism.

- The ban against the export of hides, bones and skins limits the captives' sales opportunities. At the same time, there are only a few sled dogs in the winter months, which means that there are need to develop tourism and find new income opportunities.

- The culture of catching in and around Qaanaaq is one of the tourism activities that can be developed but air traffic conditions are often an obstacle, he says.

He says that climate change has also worsened the livelihoods of prisoners and fishermen.

Many assistance applications

David Qujaukitsoq says that the difficult business conditions in Qaanaaq and the settlements have gotten about 50 fishing and trapping families to apply to the Department of Fisheries and Catch for financial aid.

The climate changes has led to a sharp decline in the domestic fishing for halibut, and itself whether fishing would normally have started at this time is not yet known started.

It is one of the reasons why the number of applications for emergency aid has increased significantly this year compared to previous years, and we are still waiting for answers, he says.

Some catchers caught quite a few narwhals in early October, but most have not had no income since, says David Qujaukitsoq.

The lack of seals

There is none procurement facility in Savissivik, and the seal skin income is the most important source of income for the prisoner families. Climate change has meant that the ice comes later, and although the hunt with nets over the ice is now underway, the seals are not really started yet. This year too, the catch of seals has gone badly, says Ole Nielsen, prisoner in Savissivik.

- In them previous years the ice cream has been available at the end of October, but now it is only the coastal part that has begun to freeze over and the catch is plentiful limited, he says.

During the period Ole Nielsen worked as a municipal water supply for the elderly, and his wife, Atugsuk Petersen Suersaq, had previously worked at the school. The couple has five children.

The fishery is in decline

Although the fishing after halibut through the ice in Qaanaaq has previously been a success, says fisherman and trapper Tobias Simigaq that changes in the sea ice in recent years have reduced fishing.

- The fishery has declined sharply this year, but catching walruses is going well Qaanaaq area because there are many of them. However, they cannot constitute one year-round income, and therefore most trapper and fisherman families have only had one modest income for a long time, says Tobias Simigaq.

According to Ujuut Olsen, director of the fish factory in Qaanaaq, which is owned by Inughuit Seafood and Royal Greenland, the procurement of narwhal food is slightly larger than last year, but only around 60 tonnes of halibut were landed.